I don't think the use of design masters and local replicas is supported if you are using a central repository such as MySQL or SQLServer - this is a feature of the JET database engine (i.e. only available when all models are in EAP file format).

We had a similar problem (we have people that need to work offline on the model and then merge their changes back in later). The way we solved it is:

1. Full model transfer from MySQL to local EAP file.2. Work on the EAP offline, noting which packages you have made changes to.3. Export any changed packages to an XML file from the local EAP file and then import them into the master MySQL repository.

This is not as automated as replicas but does seem to work. In order to avoid multiple updates to the same item by different people we've also turned on security and "require user lock to edit". (i.e. you lock the packages you intend to edit offline before step 1).

I think that you're doing too much work with the replicas. MySQL allows multiple users to work on the model at once, so if every member of your team has access to the model, then let them do their model updates without extra administration.

The big question is if you want to enable security or not. We have enabled security, and rquire user locks to edit a component. It is an extra step, but we think that it keeps things from corrupting in the database.

To see if you want the extra hassle of security and user locks, try this: Set up a sample data store with no security and let your whole team edit the same diagrams. You should see the diagrams change as you reload them, but the database should be able to handle the updates. If it makes your team members queasy to see their diagram being changed by someone else, then implement security.